


it's not a test (nor a trick of the mind)

by starrytae



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Secrets
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-08
Updated: 2021-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-14 21:27:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,969
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29548599
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starrytae/pseuds/starrytae
Summary: “Doyoung is like, 110% in love with you and that's saying a lot because he loves Jeno the most out of anyone else, and even then, that’s only a solid 90%.”“So you’re saying he’s not hiding anything?”“Taeyong, I promise you, there is nothing you need to worry about.”(or, doyoung is hiding something and taeyong is determined to find out what)
Relationships: Kim Dongyoung | Doyoung/Lee Taeyong
Comments: 10
Kudos: 172
Collections: Challenge #5 — I heard a secret..





	it's not a test (nor a trick of the mind)

**Author's Note:**

> I promise it’s fluff. No angst, just fluff. It might seem like there’s some angst but there’s not I SWEAR!

Doyoung has been acting strange lately. 

It started when Taeyong came home after a late night of work, Doyoung’s favorite take-out in hand to surprise his boyfriend. Doyoung had been rather stressed lately, overworked and overwhelmed as a GA in an undergrad chem lab and Taeyong thought he could use a little pick-me-up. Taeyong comes home to an empty apartment, though, greeted instead by a hushed voice coming from their bedroom. He placed the takeout on the counter and walked over toward their room where he could hear Doyoung’s voice low, words muffled through the door. 

He can just make out the next few words as he leans into the door, straining to hear: “-no, he doesn’t know and I’d like to keep it that way.” 

He jerks away from the door on instinct, sure he’d misheard. He taps his knuckles on the door softly, letting out a soft “Doyoung?” 

The voices stop altogether, silence settling over the apartment. Then Doyoung’s opening the door and looking at Taeyong with a practiced and eased smile on his face.

“I’ll call you back later, Mom,” he says into the phone just before hanging up and slipping it into his pocket and bending down, placing a kiss on Taeyong's cheek. “Hey, when did you get home?” Taeyong feels a frown pulling at his lips, curving them down as he crosses his arms over his chest. 

“What was that about?” 

“What was what about?”

“I just, I thought I heard-” Doyoung cuts him off then, walking towards the kitchen.

“Oh, that? That was my mom, she just wanted to know when we’re going to visit again. She’s dying to see you, you’d think that you’re the one who’s actually her son. You had a long day though, I bet you’re hungry. And oooh, you got my favorite? Thank you Tae, let’s eat.” Taeyong can’t get a word in as Doyoung rambles, unpacking all the food and shoving a plate into Taeyong’s hand before he continues. “You’ll never believe what happened today, Mark and Jungwoo almost burnt down the _entire_ lab.”

Taeyong lets it go and listens to Doyoung talk about his day as they dig into their dinner, but he makes sure to tuck the conversation he heard earlier in a folder labeled “later”.

* * *

His suspicions are confirmed later that night.

Taeyong wakes up in the middle of the night to a familiar sight: Doyoung is sitting at his desk with the lamp on, all of his focus on the desk. He’s probably grading papers or assembling a model for his students but as Taeyong glances at the alarm clock on their bedside table, he sees it’s already 1 a.m. and Doyoung has to be in the lab by 8. Taeyong gets up and pads over, rubbing his eyes as he says “what’re you doing still up?” 

Doyoung jumps up after hearing his voice and shoves whatever was in his hands into his pocket. He softens as he sees Taeyong, though, and walks over to where he’s standing and wraps his arms around him, pressing his lips to his temple.

“I’m sorry baby, did I wake you?”

“What were you doing?”

“I was just grading assignments.”

“What did you shove in your pocket?” Taeyong asks, curiosity getting the best of him. Doyoung raises an eyebrow, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a pen. “I swore you put it in your right pocket, not your left.” Taeyong protests, but his words end up mumbled through a yawn, fighting to keep his eyes all the way open. He can still make out the fond look Doyoung shoots him, though.

“That’s because you’re half asleep, love. Let’s go back to bed, hm?” Doyoung doesn’t wait for his response, just steers him back to the bed and falls under the covers with him, pulling his body close. 

“You’re lucky you’re cute, you know.” Taeyong mumbles, breath evening out and sleep pulling at his limbs. 

“Oh, don’t worry. I know just how lucky I am,” Doyoung says softly, a gentle hand carding through Taeyong’s hair and pulling him into dreamland.

* * *

Taeyong has an opportunity to figure out the mystery when Mark comes over for one of their group movie nights. Doyoung has been a GA lab assistant for months now, and Mark was a disaster in the lab from his very first day. Doyoung had all but taken the undergrad under his wing to teach him the ropes and has become not only a mentor, but a friend to the younger boy. If anyone knew what was up with Doyoung, it would be Mark. 

He manages to corner Mark when he’s coming out of the bathroom in the small hallway of their apartment.

“Hey Mark, I have a problem I’ve been meaning to ask you about.” Mark’s eyes go wide, concern coloring his features. 

“Yeah, of course. What is it?” 

“Doyoung has been acting weird lately. You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you?”

It doesn’t take much to fluster Mark Lee apparently. When he starts floundering—tripping over his words as his ears turn red—Taeyong knows he knows _something._

“What, me? Why would I know that? Doyoung is very private, you know. I mean I hardly know anything about him! Well, besides the fact you guys are together and he’s my lab assistant and- ”

“Mark!” Donghyuck, Mark’s boyfriend of 5 months going on 5 years, comes out of nowhere. He loops his arm with his boyfriend’s, shooting Taeyong a smile that’s entirely too bright to be sincere. “Would you look at the time? It’s way past my bedtime. I have that psych exam at 9 am tomorrow, too. Thanks for having us Taeyong, we’ll see ourselves out!” 

Taeyong watches as Donghyuck all but tugs Mark by the arm, dragging him a good few feet away before hitting him lightly on the back of the head. The couple is bickering before they’re fully out the door and Taeyong resists the urge to sigh. Whatever Doyoung is hiding, Mark and Donghyuck are in on it too and it’s almost impossible to find one of them without the other. They're not gonna break.

That’s when he notices Doyoung’s younger brother, Jeno, standing across the room with the rest of their friends. He’s watching Doyoung and Johnny fight as the end credits roll on the screen, eating handfuls of popcorn as the older boys bicker. Mark was a dead-end, but Jeno might know what’s going on. He starts planning out his next steps as he slides into the seat next to Doyoung, shooting a quick smile at Jeno and stealing a handful of popcorn from the bowl. Jeno happily supplies him with it, tilting the bowl toward him so he could get more. 

* * *

Taeyong comes across a small problem in his investigation. Someone (probably Donghyuck) must have gotten to Jeno first because when Taeyong walks into the coffee shop Monday morning, ready for his regular muffin and coffee, Jeno looks as if he’s seen a ghost. Taeyong lifts his hand to wave but before he can even form the word “hello”, Jeno dashes into the back room and shoves his coworker in front of the cash register. 

_That was strange._

He walks up to the counter and the young boy (Chenle, according to his name tag) gives him a once over before breaking into a wide grin.

“You must be Taeyong! What can I get for you, your usual muffin and coffee?” 

“How do you know who I am?” Chenle just shrugs, jerking a thumb to where Jeno had disappeared to.

“Jeno mentioned you’d be here and told me to get your usual order. I didn’t know who you were at first, but when he shoved me he whispered ‘that’s Taeyong’ and took off. And here we are! So, one blueberry muffin and an iced americano?”

Taeyong glances to the break-room one more time, sighing as he reaches out to pay for his order. 

“Yeah, that’ll be it. Thanks Chenle.”

* * *

The further he digs, the more hopeless he gets. He’s starting to have a sinking feeling in his gut as each lead he has turns out to be a dead-end. 

It’s really not his fault that he starts jumping to the worst case scenarios and it’s all because of that stupid conversation he shouldn’t have even heard in the first place! _He doesn’t know, and I’d like to keep it that way._ What’s that supposed to mean? What’s he supposed to think? And what was Doyoung hiding that night at his desk? Taeyong is almost sure he put it in his right pocket, not his left. He was half-asleep, but there’s no way Doyoung freaked out over a _pen_ , right?

He knows Doyoung would never cheat on him. Doyoung loves him. But he’s running out of options and he doesn’t know what to do. He’s even prepared to confront Doyoung head-on, but he has one last option, one last trick up his sleeve before he calls it quits—Johnny.

He’s their mutual best friend, the wise and sage friend between the three of them. Johnny is his last resort because if Johnny can’t help, nobody can.

“So you’re telling me you think Doyoung is _cheating_ on you?” Johnny asks, blank faced as they sit in the same coffee shop Jeno works at. Once again, Jeno had scurried into the backroom the minute he saw Taeyong. 

“I’m not saying that! I’m saying that I think he’s hiding something and that something may or may not be another person based on the context clues provided.” Johnny blinks once, twice, and lets out a laugh as he shakes his head, placing his coffee on the table between them.

“You are aware that you sound crazy, right?”

“Me? I’m crazy? Did you see the way Jeno all but ran away when I came in? He usually greets me with an eye-smile and a muffin and now I don’t even get a hello!”

Johnny sighs, leaning in to look at Taeyong. Johnny is hardly ever serious, more of a fun-natured and easy-going character, but he sombers quickly as he starts speaking and that’s how Taeyong knows he’s being truthful. 

“Alright, I know it might look bad and there are a lot of suspicious factors but trust me—the last thing you should suspect is that Doyoung is running around with somebody else. First of all, we both know he’s not the type of guy to do something like that. And second of all, he’d never do that to _you_.” 

Johnny knows something. Taeyong can feel it. Johnny is in on it just like the rest of them.

“What do you mean?”

“Doyoung is like, 110% in love with you and that's saying a lot because he loves Jeno the most out of anyone else, and even then, that’s only a solid 90% .”

“So you’re saying he’s not hiding anything?”

“I promise you, Taeyong, there is nothing you need to worry about.”

“That’s not a no.” Taeyong says, glancing up at Johnny through his pout one last time in the hopes it works. He watches as Johnny just smiles all calm, cool, collected and shrugs, picking up his coffee again.

“You’re right, it’s not. But I’m hungry, you wanna grab some sushi? My treat?” Taeyong isn’t gonna pass up a free meal and Johnny isn’t gonna let it go, so they find themselves at a sushi restaurant 30 minutes later and Taeyong tries to hold onto what Johnny had said and the hope that he’s simply over-thinking and everything will go back to normal between the two of them soon enough.

* * *

Things comes to a head one night when Taeyong and Doyoung are snuggled up on the couch watching a drama mindlessly. Doyoung is preoccupied, though. He’s got an arm thrown over Taeyong’s shoulder, pulling his body against his chest, but his focus is on his phone instead of the TV. 

“Are you even watching the drama?”

“Of course,”

“So you liked the part where the lead died?”

“Yeah.”

“Hey!” Taeyong says, pushing away and sitting up to look at his boyfriend fully. “I totally made that up just now. You really aren’t watching it!” Doyoung just rolls his eyes playfully, holding a hand out for and gesturing for Taeyong to come back against his chest.

“I’m sorry, love, I’ll pay more attention to it.”

“What’s got you so distracted anyway?” Taeyong asks, leaning forward to peer at Doyoung’s phone. He reacts faster, though, pulling the screen to his chest and flinching away from Taeyong. 

“Nothing! Just… just reading a syllabus for next semester."

“Right. Of course.” Taeyong says deadpan, frowning at his boyfriend. Doyoung sighs as he pockets his phone and runs a hand through his hair, standing up. 

“I’m sorry, it’s been a long day. I’m gonna take a shower and then we can watch a movie or something, okay? No phones, just you and me.” He leaves after pressing a kiss to Taeyong’s forehead and as much as Taeyong wants to melt and cave in, he can’t. 

He sits there for a handful of minutes trying to calm down, but the more he thinks about it the more upset he gets about the situation. Doyoung never acts like this: he’s always present with Taeyong, giving him his full attention, and he certainly never hides things on his phone. It’s not like him, not like them, and Taeyong’s tired of worrying and thinking through all the possibilities. 

He gets up, marching into the bathroom where the water is running, wisps of steam already curling in the air and fogging up the mirror.

“What are you hiding, Doyoung?” His boyfriend peeks his head outside of the shower, wet hair hanging in his eyes.

“What? I’m sorry, I can’t hear you over the shower.”

“You’ve been acting weird for weeks now and I tried to ignore it but something’s going on and I don’t know what else I’m supposed to think! What are you hiding?” There’s a beat of silence, then two or three, and Taeyong sighs as he goes to leave. 

“Tae, I swear I’m not hiding anything.”

“Do you really expect me to believe that?” Doyoung stays quiet, the sound of the water loud but Taeyong’s heart is pounding in his chest, blood rushing through his ears. He knows Doyoung can hear him just fine. He hears the water shut off as Doyoung reaches out and grabs a towel, drying off as quickly as he can.

“Look, Tae—”

But Taeyong’s had enough. He turns around, wrapping a hand around the doorknob as he turns and says over his shoulder, “Well then leaving, Doyoung, because I’m tired of your excuses.”

“Taeyong, wait—” Taeyong shuts the door behind him, hard, and storms into their bedroom ready to shove as many clothes as he can into a duffel bag and head home for the weekend. A few days of his mom’s food and some distance from Doyoung might be exactly what he needs right now. 

When Taeyong opens the bedside drawer to get his wallet, he finds that it’s not there. He rummages through all three drawers, even opening the bottom one and shuffling around but it doesn't turn up. Just as he’s about to slam it shut and move on to the closet, he sees it. 

There, hidden underneath some post-it notes and a calculator is a black box just big enough for something small, shiny, and round. He’s seen it a million times in movies, in commercials, in the shopping mall passing by, but seeing it like this is something else.

This is _his._

Suddenly all the hushed phone calls and on-edge behavior makes sense. Everyone dodging his questions and avoiding him, it was all to help keep this under wraps. The way Doyoung has been clingy, looking at him so fondly when he thinks Taeyong isn’t looking, is all because of this next step. The puzzle pieces snap into place as Taeyong reaches out, his fingertips brushing over the small pebbled fabric of the box. 

Johnny was right. He had nothing to worry about after all. 

He’s just about to open it, fingers curling around it as curiosity gets the better of him, when Doyoung’s voice rings out from the bathroom. 

“Come on, Taeyong, can we talk about this first,” Doyoung’s voice carries across the apartment, getting closer and closer, and he remembers why he had come here in the first place. He shoves the drawer shut just in time, scurrying out of the bedroom right as Doyoung comes in.

They run into each other, bodies colliding roughly and foreheads smacking together. Taeyong reaches up with a groan, pressing a hand to the impact zone as Doyoung reaches out automatically, cupping his face in his hands.

“Are you okay?” 

“Yeah. Yeah, I am.” He’s better than okay, and as Doyoung looks at him with concern and worry—eyes wide open and searching—Taeyong thinks about how lucky he is. “So, you promise you’re not hiding anything from me?” He asks, watching as a different kind of worry flickers in Doyoung’s eyes, his hands tensing where they rest lightly on Taeyong’s cheeks. He lets himself crack a smile then, leaning out of Doyoung’s touch and crossing his arms. “Let me rephrase: you swear you don’t have a secret boyfriend on the side?” 

Doyoung laughs and it sounds a little too much like relief. _Foolish,_ taeyong thinks to himself. How did he not realize it all sooner?

“Never. You’re almost too much for me to handle as it is.” Doyoung jokes, lacing their hands together with a playful, fond smile. 

“But you love me.” Taeyong teases. Doyoung looks at Taeyong with nothing but love as he lifts their joined hands up to his lips, pressing a kiss to Taeyong’s knuckles.

“I do.”

**Author's Note:**

> (yes he was actually talking to his mother in the beginning. also, he was looking up wedding ideas and venues in the last scene.)
> 
> I hope you all enjoyed it :)


End file.
